SEC Football

Texas A&M's future defense got even better Sunday.

That is because highly regarded outside linebacker Harold Perkins chose the Aggies during the Under Armour All-America Game, per ESPN's Tom VanHaaren.

Perkins, who checks in at 6'2½" and 210 pounds, is a 5-star prospect and the No. 5 overall player, No. 1 linebacker and No. 1 player from the state of Texas in the 2022 recruiting class, per 247Sports' composite rankings.

He caught the eye of some of the best programs in the country, as Alabama, Ohio State, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Oregon, Penn State, Texas and USC were all on his list of interested schools at some point during the recruiting process.

There is no better testament to Perkins' athleticism as a linebacker than the fact he was also a dangerous running back during his high school career.

The speed that helps him play the running back position translates to the defensive side of the ball, with the ability to pursue ball-carriers in space and rush the quarterback off the edge. Opposing offensive linemen will have a difficult time keeping him out of the backfield as a pass-rusher, which should help him play his way into the rotation during his freshman season.

Perkins is also solid against the run and can make tackles in space.

Gabe Brooks of 247Sports pointed to Perkins' versatility as a defensive playmaker, which should allow him to contribute in 4-3 and 3-4 sets while remaining on the field for passing downs as someone who can keep up with tight ends or running backs coming out of the backfield.

Between his explosiveness as a pass-rusher, his tackling ability and that tendency to impact the game in a number of ways, Perkins has the potential to be one of the best players in the entire 2022 recruiting class.

If he lives up to that potential, he can help Texas A&M compete in the daunting SEC.

The Aggies nearly made the College Football Playoff during the 2020 campaign, which was just their second season with fewer than three losses since 1994. The best way to maintain more consistency moving forward is by landing playmakers like Perkins on the recruiting trail, so this was a significant victory for the program.

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart wasn't in a celebratory mood Friday night after the Bulldogs' Orange Bowl blowout of Michigan, which set up a rematch with SEC rival Alabama in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game.

"I'm not interested in celebrating that," Smart told reporters. "We'll look back on that win and that'll be great, but we're focused on the task ahead, and that's the objective. They worked their tail off for three to four weeks to get this opportunity, and it was a one-game season, and now it's another one-game season."

It was a dominant New Year's Eve for the SEC. The Crimson Tide rolled to a 27-6 victory over Cincinnati, while the Dawgs cruised to a 34-11 win over the Wolverines.

Now Bama and UGA will face off for the second time in five weeks on Jan. 10 with the national title on the line. The Tide won the season's first meeting, 41-24, in the SEC Championship Game.

Smart noted his team drew motivation from all the talk about what went wrong in the first matchup with Alabama, and it helped the group bounce back in a major way in the CFP semifinals.

"I really never had questions about this team," he said. "The resiliency, the bounce back, the amount of character—I've seen it all year. We didn't play well, and we turned the ball over and didn't get any turnovers and played poor in the red area. You can list all the things we did in the last game. That's all our kids have heard about for three weeks."

It was a particularly strong rebound performance from UGA quarterback Stetson Bennett, who completed 21 of his 31 throws for 310 yards with three touchdowns, no interceptions and no sacks. He threw two picks and was sacked three times in the SEC title game.

The vaunted Bulldogs defense also returned to form, holding Michigan to 325 total yards and a garbage-time touchdown while forcing three turnovers.

"Champs not at all. The job's not finished," Georgia linebacker Nakobe Dean said. "We didn't do everything we did this whole season just to win the Orange Bowl."

The biggest question heading into the championship game will be which version of the Georgia defense is going to show up Jan. 10.

Aside from the loss to Alabama, the Dawgs won their other five games against ranked opponents this season by a combined score of 145-37, good for an average score of 29-7.4.

So, even given the Tide's status as the nation's premier program, it was surprising to see UGA give up 536 total yards and 41 points in the first matchup. The defense must be significantly better in the rematch.

From a neutral fan's perspective, the hope will be for a competitive battle for the title after the three biggest games of the season to date—the two CFP semifinals and the SEC title game—ended with lopsided results.

South Carolina's 38-21 victory over North Carolina in the Duke's Mayo Bowl on Thursday came with an added bonus for head coach Shane Beamer. 

The postgame celebration was capped off with Beamer being doused with 4.5 gallons of Duke's Mayonnaise. 

One silver lining for Beamer is it wasn't 100 percent pure mayonnaise, as Laura Brownlow of WRAL Sports Fan noted it was "slightly watered down." 

This entire scenario started on Dec. 5 when Danny Morrison, executive director of the Duke's Mayo Bowl, announced a donation of $10,000 to the charity of the winning coach's choice if they would take a bath in mayonnaise. 

Per The Athletic's Nicole Auerbach, both coaches agreed to the deal if their team won. 

It's unclear if the Gamecocks were motivated by the thought of seeing their head coach get covered in mayonnaise, but they certainly played like that was the case. They stormed out to an 18-0 lead in the first quarter. 

South Carolina put up 543 yards of total offense, including 301 rushing yards on 51 carries, in the win. Dakereon Joyner completed all nine of his pass attempts for 160 yards and one touchdown. 

Despite taking a good shot to the head when the pourers nearly lost control of the mayo bucket, Beamer should be all smiles after this moment. He led the Gamecocks to their first bowl win since 2017 in his first season as head coach. 

South Carolina finished with a winning record (7-6) for the first time since 2018. 

Alabama head football coach Nick Saban commented Thursday on the trials and tribulations the Crimson Tide went through this season en route to becoming the No. 1 team in the nation.

According to ESPN's Chris Low, Saban was asked by a reporter if the team tested his patience this season, to which Saban responded: "I don't have any patience, so anything that happens is a test of my patience, including sitting in this chair right now."

After going undefeated and winning a national championship last season, the Tide lost to Texas A&M in October and were in danger of potentially missing the College Football Playoff.

However, Saban's team went on a run and won some close games before beating then-No. 1 Georgia 41-24 in the SEC Championship Game and earning the No. 1 seed in the CFP.

Wins over LSU, Arkansas and Auburn were all one-score games, so while Alabama is the No. 1 team and perhaps the favorite to repeat as national champions, things have not come easily for Saban's squad in 2021.

Saban attempted to explain the reasoning behind the Tide's inconsistency, saying:

I think it's always challenging when you're coming off winning a championship for players to have the same hunger and sense of urgency to prove something. I think that is sort of a part of the human condition, that when you have success you want to be rewarded, you want to relax and can be a little complacent, so I don't think it was unusual from that standpoint.

We sort of anticipate that when we have a successful season and are coming off a successful season, but because we were young, it took this team a little longer to maybe respond on a consistent basis like we wanted them to.

Aside from potential complacency, Alabama lost several key players from last season's 13-0 team to the NFL.

Chief among them were quarterback Mac Jones, running back Najee Harris, wide receivers DeVonta Smith and Jaylen Waddle, offensive tackle Alex Leatherwood, cornerback Patrick Surtain II and defensive tackle Christian Barmore.

Despite losing so much talent, Bama persevered this season thanks largely to the play of Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Bryce Young.

Young has been as good as advertised this season, completing 68.0 percent of his passes for 4,322 yards, 43 touchdowns and just four interceptions.

The pressure will be squarely on the shoulders of Young, Saban and the Crimson Tide on Friday when they host No. 4 Cincinnati in the Cotton Bowl, which doubles as one of the two CFP semifinals.

Alabama is heavily favored against the first Group of Five team to ever reach the College Football Playoff, meaning the Tide's preparation and will to win will be put to the test.

The Texas Tech Red Raiders defeated the Mississippi State Bulldogs 34-7 in Tuesday's Liberty Bowl to capture their first winning season since 2015. The Red Raiders also hadn't won a bowl game since the 2013 Holiday Bowl in Kliff Kingsbury's first season as head coach.

Texas Tech entered Tuesday's game with just one win in its last five games.

Before Tuesday, the Red Raiders and Bulldogs hadn't met since 1970. Texas Tech lost that game 20-16. Mississippi State now leads the all-time series against Texas Tech 4-3-1.

Notable Stats

Donovan Smith, QB, TTU: 15/28 for 252 YDS, 1 TD and 5 CAR for 30 YDS, 1 TD

Will Rogers, QB, MSU: 32/53 for 290 YDS, 1 TD, 1 INT

Tahj Brooks, RB, TTU: 16 CAR for 107 YDS, 1 TD

Makai Polk, WR, MSU: 7 REC for 57 YDS

SaRodorick Thompson, RB, TTU: 14 CAR for 80 YDS, 1 TD

Rara Thomas, WR, MSU: 2 REC for 32 YDS, 1 TD

Red Raiders' Rushing Offense Gets Job Done

Texas Tech quarterback Donovan Smith was underwhelming in the passing game Tuesday night. However, the Red Raiders' rushing offense got the job done.

Texas Tech opened the game with a rushing touchdown from sophomore running back Tahj Brooks, who was the team's most potent player on the ground against Mississippi State. He finished with 16 carries for 107 yards and one touchdown.

The Red Raiders' performance on the ground was somewhat surprising, as they entered ranked eighth in the Big 12 with 150.7 rushing yards per game. The team's passing offense, meanwhile, entered averaging 257.7 yards per game, which ranked third in the Big 12.

Tuesday's game was Brooks' first game with more than 100 rushing yards since a Sept. 11 win over Stephen F. Austin State University. It was also his most productive game since then.

Brooks entered with 461 yards and six touchdowns on the ground, a significant increase from the 255 rushing yards and four rushing scores he had as a freshman in 2020.

In addition to Brooks, junior running back SaRodorick Thompson had his most productive game since an Oct. 16 win over Kansas. He finished with 14 carries for 80 yards and one touchdown, in addition to Smith's five carries for 30 yards and one score.

Thompson entered with 448 rushing scores and nine rushing touchdowns in 10 games.

Texas Tech's rushing performance was even more impressive when looking at Mississippi State's defensive stats. The Bulldogs defense entered having allowed 101.2 rushing yards per game, the third-least in the SEC and 10th-least in college football.

To be fair, the Mississippi State defense was without several key defensive players on Tuesday, including safety Jalen Green, defensive linemen Randy Charlton and Jaden Crumedy, and cornerback Martin Emerson, who declared for the NFL draft. The defense was also without linebacker Aaron Brule, who transferred to Michigan State.

Regardless, Tuesday's performance from the Red Raiders' rushing offense was impressive, and Texas Tech fans can look forward to another season of Brooks and Thompson in the backfield in 2022.

Will Rogers Underwhelming for Bulldogs

Tuesday's game was Rogers' worst of the season. There's no other way to put it.

The sophomore quarterback entered having completed 75.1 percent of his passes for 4,449 yards (370.8 yards per game) and 35 touchdowns to eight interceptions. His passing yardage was tied for second in college football with UVA's Brennan Armstrong, while his completion percentage ranked first.

Rogers completed just 32 of 53 passes (60.3 percent) for 290 yards, one touchdown and one interception against the Red Raiders. He hadn't been held to under 300 passing yards since a Sept. 11 win over NC State.

However, Mississippi State's rushing offense didn't do Rogers any favors, either. Sophomore running backs Dillon Johnson and Jo'quavious Marks finished with just 14 carries for 81 yards.

The Bulldogs offense actually entered having averaged 385.7 passing yards per game, the most in the SEC, which further highlights Rogers' struggles in the pocket.

Mississippi State could have thrust itself back into Tuesday's game early in the fourth quarter, but Rogers threw a costly interception, and the Red Raiders charged back down the field to put things out of reach for the Bulldogs.

Rogers hadn't thrown an interception since a Nov. 6 loss to Arkansas. The Bulldogs went 5-2 in games he didn't throw a pick this season.

Despite his performance Tuesday, Bulldogs fans have a lot to look forward to from Rogers in the future. He set Mississippi State's single-season passing records for yards and touchdowns this season, which were previously held by Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott. He also became the first-ever Bulldog to throw for more than 4,000 yards in a season.

If there's one thing to take away from Tuesday's Liberty Bowl, it's that Rogers is still learning, but he has an incredibly bright future ahead among college football's best.

Texas A&M has droppede out of the Gator Bowl due to an outbreak of COVID-19.

Ross Dellenger of Sports Illustrated first reported the news.

The Aggies were scheduled to face Wake Forest on Dec. 31 at TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville, Florida.

"We are disappointed that Texas A&M University and the Aggie fans will be unable to represent the Southeastern Conference in Jacksonville at this year’s TaxSlayer Gator Bowl game. However, the health and safety of the student-athletes, coaches and staff remains our primary concern" TaxSlayer Gator Bowl Chairman John Duce said in a statement.

The Gator Bowl is seeking a replacement, but Dellenger reported this would only happen if another bowl game was affected by COVID-19, leaving a second team without an opponent.

Dellenger noted teams do not receive a payout if a bowl game isn't played; the Gator Bowl's payout would be $5.35 million.

Texas A&M reportedly hadn't practiced in about a week because of COVID-19 concerns, with several athletes testing positive on Sunday and Monday, per Jeff Tarpley of 247Sports. The team met virtually on Tuesday.

Gator Bowl president Greg McGarity said on Tuesday that "everything is still a go for the game."

"We've been made aware of those concerns," he said of Texas A&M. "If there are any issues, we'll find out as soon as possible."

If it can't play, Texas A&M will finish its season 8-4 without the chance to win its fourth straight bowl game. 

At 10-3, Wake Forest has already clinched its first double-digit win season since 2006.